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"The Family Fang is the best kind of art film - it has no pretensions to anything beyond telling its story and does so in the simplest and most straightforward manner it can.

DVD Review: ‘The Family Fang’ – Nicole Kidman, Jason Bateman & Christopher Walken

Cover Family Fang copyThe Family Fang, being released on DVD July 5 2016 by Anchor Bay Entertainment isn’t a movie about a stereotypical family. Sure there’s two kids and a mom and a pop, but any similarities between them and the idealized world of American fantasy, ends with that equation.

The movie is told through the eyes of the Fang children, Annie (Nicole Kidman) and Baxter (Jason Bateman). Annie and Baxter are both struggling to come out from under the shadow that was cast on them by their parents. While both children have grown up to have success in their chosen fields – she’s an actor he’s a writer – they are both currently having troubles.

Through a series of old film clips we begin to understand how their parents, Caleb (Christopher Walken ) and Camille (Maryann Plunkett) used the children as props in their experimental performance art pieces. They would stage events in a public place in order to provoke those watching and film the resulting mayhem and reactions.

While initially the children were in on the plans, as the movie develops, we see how as they aged their parents would start using them without their knowledge to make the “moment” more real. While the children know they didn’t receive what would be called a normal upbringing, it’s only when their parents are reported missing and they start watching old footage are uncomfortable memories triggered.

However, it all comes to a head when Annie and Baxter, Caleb refers to them as A & B, meet with an old colleague of their parents. He gives them a rough cut of a documentary he was making about the Fangs and their work which contains a very disturbing revelation about how Caleb viewed his relationship with his kids.

Adapted from Kevin Wilson’s book of the same name by David Lindsay-Abaire The Family Fang constantly takes you by surprise. Initially the movie is quirky and funny as we’re introduced to some of the family’s movie projects starring the young Annie and Baxter. They are genuinely funny and provocative, just what good performance art and happenings should be. Even the opening scenes with Annie and Baxter as adults are quite funny.

However, both of them are pushing the limits of their existences, and what we’re laughing at is other people’s reactions to the damage they’re inflicting upon themselves, both literally and figuratively. The pathos revealed by these scenes gradually helps us to develop a truer picture of what both of them are struggling to overcome as adults.

Bateman’s direction throughout the movie is spot on. Not only does he set each scene wonderfully, he also allows the story to develop at the perfect pace. Viewers are given the right amount of time to absorb the information they need to understand what’s going on beneath the surface for each character. However, he never lets anything drag. What’s nice is how when the pace speeds up it seems to be a reflection of the characters’ needs – not an attempt to force something to happen for the sake of have something happen.

As you would expect from quality of the cast the performances are wonderful. Bateman and Kidman have managed to create the perfect brother and sister chemistry on screen and their scenes together are wonderful. There is an ease about them together on screen which speaks to a long familiarity – not always friendly, but able to know how the other person is going to react – that you only find between siblings.
Jason Bateman & Nicole Kidman - The Family Fang
As the parents, Walken and Plunkett are equally good. Walken is of course ideal for the role of the driven artist who has forgotten something about humanity – nobody else has as an intense a stare. However, he also manages to instil a degree of humanity into his role – we may not feel any sympathy for him, but we do come to understand him and how he thinks in sort of a round about way.

Plunkett makes a good foil for Walken. For, while she is caught up in Caleb’s artistic ambitions she has not completely lost sight of her humanity and the fact her children aren’t merely props. However, this doesn’t stop her from going along with his plans to the extent she even curtails her own artistic ambitions. There’s is an undercurrent of fear to her performance which gives the viewer clues there might be something more than what we see on the surface for all the characters.

The Family Fang does a magnificent job of exploring the delicate dynamics of art and interpersonal relationships. Can you really justify anything in the name of art – or is there a line if crossed which turns behaviour into abuse? We also see, with beautiful subtlety, how adult survivors of abuse learn to take control of their lives. There’s no big moment or blinding revelation, it’s just a process of acceptance and then learning how to get on with life.

The Family Fang is funny, poignant, and a little disturbing. It will make you think about life, art, and the human condition – which when you come to think of it is the purpose of art. This is the best kind of art film – it has no pretensions to anything beyond telling its story and does so in the simplest and most straightforward manner it can. However, the sum of its parts add up to something beautiful that moves us as only art can.

About Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of three books commissioned by Ulysses Press, "What Will Happen In Eragon IV?" (2009) and "The Unofficial Heroes Of Olympus Companion" and "Introduction to Greek Mythology For Kids". Aside from Blogcritics he contributes to Qantara.de and his work has appeared in the German edition of Rolling Stone Magazine and has been translated into numerous languages in multiple publications.

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